‘Foolproof’

Today’s notice: Wine Wednesday at the hottest hangout for MAGA staffers. Trump’s “foolproof” plan to fix elections. How the Senate sees the House, and vice versa. Is there any pressure to end the DHS shutdown? Plus: Democrats face a setback in Wisconsin.

THE LATEST

Taking control: Last night Donald Trump took a new step in his effort to wield power over how elections are conducted in the U.S. He signed an executive order that would crack down on mail-in voting, NOTUS’ Amelia Benavides-Colón reports.

The order mandates that the Department of Homeland Security create a list of eligible voters in each state, then compels the U.S. Postal Service to record who mails in ballots with a special barcode that corresponds to the DHS list. States that don’t comply could lose federal funding. (Just a reminder: Trump voted by mail in March.)

“I believe it will be foolproof,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Maybe it’ll be tested, maybe it won’t.”

The directive is widely expected to be challenged in court. And even the president’s supporters acknowledge the difficulties ahead. Mike Davis, the founder of the Article III Project and a staunch Trump ally, defended the order by saying it was covered under Article 2 of the Constitution. But when asked if it would face opposition, Davis texted Jasmine, “Yes, it will prevail.”

Meanwhile, a previous elections bill that would have pulled federal funding from states that refused to change their voter systems remains blocked by multiple judges.

“It reeks of fear. He is petrified of losing in November,” Democratic strategist Jim Manley told Emily.

That revelation was just one of many the president dropped in the Oval.

• Taking a trip: Trump said he plans to attend Supreme Court oral arguments this morning. Hours later, the White House added it to his daily schedule (closed press). If he follows through, he will become the first president to do so. Asked by reporters which justices were his favorites, Trump said, “I love a few of them, I ‌don’t ⁠like some others.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
  
• Two to three weeks: That’s the latest timeline Trump has provided for the U.S. to wrap up its conflict with Iran. And he said keeping the Strait of Hormuz open would have “nothing to do with us.” Just hours later, the White House announced that Trump would address the nation tonight at 9 p.m. to talk about Iran — the first prime-time address since the war began in February.
  

Open tabs: U.A.E. Wants to Force Hormuz Open and Is Willing to Join the Fight (WSJ); American journalist Shelly Kittleson kidnapped in Baghdad (WaPo) A global jet fuel shortage is raising the cost of air travel (NBC); Trump’s Justice Department Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to Immigration (ProPublica)

From the Hill

The beef between chambers is becoming personal: House Republicans feel that their Senate counterparts don’t take them seriously.

“The Senate clearly, like transparently, has zero respect for the House at all,” one House Republican told NOTUS’ Al Weaver and Reese Gorman. “There’s this idea that they are far superior to us intellectually, that they understand issues better than we do. The Senate sees the House as a bunch of sort of barbarians or Philistines, and they’re the enlightened ones.”

The disconnect is not a new phenomenon. One senior Senate GOP aide said the start of recent animosity was a battle over whether members of the chamber could sue the federal government, potentially for millions, if their phone data was obtained by the DOJ during the Biden-era “Arctic Frost” probe.

A former member of the House, Sen. James Lankford, defended the upper chamber against those whom he says just don’t get it.

“I’m one of the folks that was in the House and thought I understood the Senate — until you get into the Senate and you understand, no, that this is a very, very different body and I’m not willing to be able to blow up the filibuster and turn the Senate into the House,” Lankford said.

From the White House

Airport lines are improving, in part due to the White House’s decision to pay TSA agents via executive action on Friday. But fewer frustrated travelers might have undercut Republicans’ leverage to end the partial government shutdown.

“I don’t think it probably positions Republicans in the House particularly well to get what they want,” conservative strategist Liz Mair said. “They also have caused a lot of people to ask the question, ‘Well, if this could be fixed with an EO, why didn’t you just do it in the first place?’”

Still, “a big Easter dinner” is in store for Republicans in Congress if they return from break to fund DHS, Karoline Leavitt promised at Monday’s press briefing — though some conservatives blame Republican leadership for creating the problem and letting it fester in the first place.

“The White House was right to take the issue off the table. I think congressional leadership has bungled it,” Marc Short, Trump’s legislative director during his first term, texted Jasmine.

Short added that “the dysfunction between the house and the Senate muddles” Republicans’ message that they’re tougher on border security than Democrats.

From a bar in Navy Yard

Red, wine and blue: This Wednesday night hangout for young political staffers hasn’t gotten much attention from the Washington press corps — until NOTUS sent Emily there.

Going to Scarlet Oak — or, as those in the know call it, Scoak — for half-off wine on Wednesdays has become “a young Republican rite of passage,” said Gen Z MAGA influencer CJ Pearson.

“It’s definitely a great sense of community in a city that is largely blue,” Pearson said. “When I’m ready to turn it up a little bit, I’m going to Scoak.”

Former Biden aide Yemisi Egbewole occasionally tags along for drinks with her Republican friends. She said it’s “where the people who do the actual grinding and turning hang out.”

“If I had a business or something, or I was a lobbyist, and I was trying to figure out, ‘What are Republicans thinking?’ I’d probably go to Scarlet Oak,” she said.

NEW ON NOTUS

Dismissed: Democrats in Wisconsin faced a setback yesterday after a three-judge circuit court panel dismissed their attempt to have the state’s congressional map redrawn over allegations of gerrymandering, NOTUS’ Jade Lozada reports.

Democrats can appeal to the state Supreme Court while another lawsuit, which argues that the map favors incumbents, is still pending.

NOT US

• In South Dakota, Sympathy for Kristi Noem’s Husband After Tabloid Photo Leak, by Shawn McCreesh for The New York Times
  
• The man behind Donald Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship, by Josh Gerstein for Politico
  
• How World Cup Players Are Navigating Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, by Albert Samaha for The New Yorker

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